This blog is affiliated with a course at the School of Journalism & Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I'll try to use it to share relevant news and information with the class, and anyone else who's interested.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Pew Releases State of the News Media 2012 Report.

Just released, I'll pull a few highlights from the overview, and comment more on particular findings later.

Pew's announcing the arrival of "The Age of Mobile" in their State of the News Media 2012 Report:

New research released in this report finds that mobile devices are adding to people’s news consumption, strengthening the lure of traditional news brands and providing a boost to long-form journalism. Eight in ten who get news on smartphones or tablets, for instance, get news on conventional computers as well. People are taking advantage, in other words, of having easier access to news throughout the day – in their pocket, on their desks and in their laps.

But it's not all good news - the report also suggests that fundamental changes in the nature of news and news media are continuing. One aspect of that is that traditional news outlets are losing control of news distribution and gatekeeping functions. And the major urban dailies continue their poor performance -

The problems of newspapers also became more acute in 2011. Even as online audiences grew, print circulation continued to decline. Even more critically, so did ad revenues. In 2011, losses in print advertising dollars outpaced gains in digital revenue by a factor of roughly 10 to 1, a ratio even worse than in 2010. When circulation and advertising revenue are combined, the newspaper industry has shrunk 43% since 2000.

People's patterns of news consumption also continue to shift, with online news site audiences growing at a rate almost 4 times it's nearest competitor, and declines in use of print media.

And revenues have not always followed audience shifts - most news media saw revenues fall in 2011.

The transformation of media and news is continuing, although there are some positive trends identified by the report. I'll look at some of the special reports and industry sections later.